Fastening device



E. U. KIMBARK. FASTENING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 15. I919.

1,336,629. Patented Apr. 13,1920.

UNITED STATES PATENT orrron.

EUGENE U. KIMBARK, OF EVANSTON, ILLINOIS.

FASTENING DEVICE.

Application filed July 15, 1919.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EUGENE U. KIMBARK, a citizen of the United States, residing at Evanston, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fastening Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to fastening devices, and particularly to envelop fasteners or clips. It has for its object the formation of a simple fastener of this type which may be made by a simple operation and without waste.

A further object is to devise a fastener so formed that it may be stamped from a blank and secured to an envelop or other article by what I term a single operation. In the stamping of most fasteners of this class it is impossible, owing to the interference of the waste material or waste punchings, to attach the fastener'to the envelop in a single machine or operation. It is necessary first to separate the fasteners from the waste cuttings or punchings before it is possible to feed them into the machine which attaches them to the envelops. I have eevised a fastener which may be formed by a single cut from a blank and in which there is no waste. Accordingly it is possible to form-the fastener from the blank and at tach it to the envelop or other article by what I have termed a single operation. There is no waste to interfere as is the case with certain other fasteners.

The invention consists in the novel construction to be hereinafter described and claimed for carrying out the above stated objects and such other incidental objects as will appear from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention showii in the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing- Figure 1 is a perspective view of my fastener attached to an envelop.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the fastener.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the fastener as stamped from the blank.

Fig. 4 is a blank showing in dotted lines they fasteners before stamped from the blank.

Fig. 5 shows the same fastener as in Fig. 3 but having an additional cut made therein.

Like characters of reference designate like parts in the several figures of the drawings.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 13, 1920.

Serial 1%. 311,028.

My invention consists in a fastener 10 which is stamped from a blank 11 by means of a single cut. The stamping die is of general 8 shape or ogee form and, as indicated in Fig. 4, a fastener is formed by every transverse cut of the blank. The fastener comprises a body portion 12 having tongues 13 and 14 extending therefrom and fastening spurs 15 and 16 extending from the diagonal corners thereof. It is contemplated to use the spurs 15 and 16 to attach the fastener to the envelop. This is done by bending them down as shown at 17 in Fig. 2. Owing to the fact that the fastener is usually attached to the envelop at a point where there is a double thickness of paper such small fastening spurs as I have shown are ample to firmly secure the fastener to the envelop. In case it is desired to provide larger fastening spurs it is possible to provide these from the same fastener by shearing. at the same time the fastener is formed and by means of the same die. two cuts, shown at 18 and 19 in Fig. 5. are made. Two spurs 20 and 21 are thus formed which are larger than those shown in Fig. 2. These may be bent along the lines 22. 23 for attaching to the envelop or other article The gist of my invention s the stamping of a blank so formed that one-h alf thereof is complementary to the other half. An examination of Fig. 4 will show that the tongue 14 is complementary to the portion cut away from the blank at 24. It will be seen that the cut away portion is nothing more than the tongue of the precedinq fastener. It is immaterial in producing fasteners by a single out whether the inner edge 25 of the fastener is parallel with the edge of the fastener or not. It may be diagonal or of any other form so long as the tongue 14 is complementary to the cut away portion 24. By rounding the ends of the tongues 26 it is possible to leave sufiicient material to form the spurs 15 and 16.

It will be seen that I have, by means of a fastener designed as shown, been able to form the same in a single operation and without waste. The absence of waste material is of more importance than merely an increase in saving resulting from the absence of waste. It is possible with a blank in whi h there is no waste to form the same and attach it to an envelop or other article by what I have termed a single operation. There is no waste material to clog the feedmachine which secures them to the article.

Accordingly it is clear that the formation of a fastener such as I have described pos sesses a commercial value relatively greater in importance than the mere saving of waste material.

I claim:

1. As an article of manufacture, a metallic fastener for envelops comprising a body having two fastening tongues extending in opposite directions but offset so as not to be in the same line and having their ends trimmed, the edges of said body opposite the tongues being formed complementary to the ends of said tongues.

2. As an article of manufacture, an envelop fastener formed from a strip blank by a single cut comprising a body portion having tongues with rounded ends extending in opposite directions therefrom and offset from each other said body portion being cut away at the base of each of the tongues complementary to the ends of said tongues whereby attaching spurs are formed on opposite corners thereof.

3. As an article of manufacture, an envelop fastener formed from a strip blank by a single cut comprising a body portion having tongues with rounded ends extending in opposite directions therefrom and offset from each other, said body portion being out inwardly on opposite sides of its intermediate portion to form bendable attaching spurs.

4. A fastener formed from a strip blank without waste comprising a pair of fastening tongues whose outer edges are the outer edges of the blank from which it was formed, extending in opposite direction and off-set from each other.

EUGENE U. KIMBARK. 

